Gampopa was a disciple of the Buddha Shakyamuni in a previous lifetime. He was predicted to appear as a great Bodhisattva in Tibet, in the Samadhiraja Sutra by the Buddha himself. 

He was born in the Nyal region of eastern Tibet and became a renown physician.  However, his wife and young children fell ill and died to an incurable epidemic.  On her death bed, his wife asked Gampopa not marry another woman, but instead to become a monk and practice the dharma.

Gampopa was then ordained in the Kadampa lineage of mind training.  He became learned like a scholar, but wished to attain actual realization through practice.  After hearing the name of Milarepa, mentioned by a beggar whose sole wish was to become like Mila “The King of the Beggars,” Gampopa set out to find his destined teacher.

After disappointments and hard journeys, Milarepa finally appeared to him and said that they never were separated in the first place.  Mila gave Gampopa a cup of beer to drink, to which Gampopa refused at first because it would break his monastic vows.  However, Mila only cut through Gampopa’s preconceptions and ego even further because instead of using vows to aid his enlightenment, Gampopa became fixated on vows and his mind became more narrow due to them.  Then, Gampopa drank the entire cup and this represented that Gampopa would receive the entire lineage transmission.

Gampopa received transmissions from Milarepa and meditated for many years.  Each time he developed another sign or extraordinary vision, from visions of deities to physical changes, Mila merely told him to keep practicing and not to fixate on these.  Even when Gampopa inquired about his supernormal dreams, Mila explained their significance but strongly advised him to not generate expectations from them.

After gaining complete realization, Mila sent him off to found a monastery in the Dagpo area and attract disciples.  Gampopa did so, and he had four great disciples which founded the four main lineages.  At the time of his death, at age seventy-five, flowers rained down and rainbows stretched across the sky.